Truth hurts: The factual basis for President Trump’s State of the Union claims

In an address loaded with dramatic moments, President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed that “The best is yet to come.”

President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address on Feb. 4. / YouTube

The Daily Signal of the Heritage Foundation fact-checked the following key parts of Trump’s address:

1. “We are restoring our nation’s manufacturing might, even though predictions were that this could never be done. After losing 60,000 factories under the previous two administrations, America has now gained 12,000 new factories under my administration.”

According to Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact in 2017, “the United States has lost more than 60,000 factories since 2001.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 356,046 manufacturing establishments existed in the second quarter of 2019, the most recent quarter available. In the first quarter of 2017, when Trump took office, there were 343,972. That means there’s now an additional 12,074 new factories.

2. “ … the United States has become the No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas in the world, by far.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, in late 2018 the U.S. became a net exporter of oil for the first time in nearly 75 years:

The U.S. also became the world’s largest producer of oil in 2018, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In August, the EIA reported, “The United States surpassed Russia in 2011 to become the world’s largest producer of natural gas and surpassed Saudi Arabia in 2018 to become the world’s largest producer of petroleum.”

3. “The unemployment rates for African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans have reached the lowest levels in history. African American youth unemployment has reached an all-time low. The African American poverty rate has declined to the lowest rate ever recorded.”

The Hispanic unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2019, a record low, according to CNBC, which also reported a record low for unemployment for African Americans at 5.5 percent.

Last year, African American youth unemployment reportedly dropped to the lowest rate since it was first tracked in the early 1970s. In July, the unemployment rate for blacks between ages 16 and 19 dropped to 17.7 percent.

The unemployment rate for Asian Americans hit a record low in July 2019, according to the Associated Press, falling to 2.1 percent.

Trump has talked many times before about the decline in the poverty rate for African Americans. PolitiFact, in 2018, said this is accurate.

4. “Under the last administration, more than 10 million people were added to the food stamp rolls. Under my administration, 7 million Americans have come off of food stamps.”

According to numbers from the Department of Agriculture, 10.7 million more Americans were on food stamps when President Barack Obama left office in January 2017 after eight years.

The Agriculture Department recently released numbers showing that 7.7 million fewer Americans receive SNAP benefits than when Trump took office.

5. “After decades of flat and falling incomes, wages are rising fast, and, wonderfully, they are rising fastest for low-income workers, who have seen a 16 percent pay increase since my election. This is a blue-collar boom.”

Incomes for low-wage workers have been rising faster than incomes for low-wage workers, a reversal of a long-term trend, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

At the end of 2019, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s wage-growth tracker showed that “the lowest-paid workers have been experiencing higher median wage growth.”

“[F]or workers in lower-wage jobs, their relative median wage over the 2000s has deteriorated, and that erosion has reversed course only in the last few years,” the Atlanta Federal Reserve said. “This reverses the pattern seen in the wake of the Great Recession, when median wage growth for lower-paid workers slowed by more than for workers overall.”

6. “Before I took office, health insurance premiums had more than doubled in just five years. I moved quickly to provide affordable alternatives. Our new plans are up to 60 percent less expensive.”

Trump was citing numbers from a Department of Health and Human Services study from May 2017 that found average health insurance premiums had doubled since 2013.

The HHS analysis found that average premiums in the individual market on HealthCare.gov went from an annual $2,784 in 2013 to $5,712 in 2017 — an increase of 105%.

In addition, all 39 states using the Obamacare exchanges on HealthCare.gov saw an increase in individual market premiums from 2013 to 2017. Three states — Alaska, Alabama, and Oklahoma — saw premiums triple, the HHS analysis found.

With regard to plans costing 60 percent less under the Trump administration, the president was referring to a new rule in 2018 that allowed Americans to buy short-term health insurance plans to last for 364 days, and renewable for up to three years.

7. “One hundred thirty-two lawmakers in this room have endorsed legislation to impose a socialist takeover of our health care system, wiping out the private health insurance plans of 180 million Americans.”

Heritage Foundation health care analyst Robert Moffit wrote: “Under Section 107, the bill would outlaw private health coverage, including employer-sponsored coverage, that ‘duplicates’ the coverage provided under the government health plan. Approximately 181 million Americans would lose their existing private coverage.”

8. “Over 130 legislators in this chamber have endorsed legislation that would bankrupt our nation by providing free taxpayer-funded health care to millions of illegal aliens, forcing taxpayers to subsidize free care for anyone in the world who unlawfully crosses our borders.”

During a debate in June 2019, every Democratic presidential candidate raised their hands when asked whether they supported taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants.

California became the first state to pass taxpayer-funded health care for illegals. The New York Times reported that in six states and the District of Columbia, Medicaid covers children regardless of immigration status. So of more than 10 million illegal immigrants in the United States, about 6 million would need health care.

A study by the Center for Immigration Studies determined that government-provided health insurance for illegal immigrants would cost $23 billion per year.

9. “This will be a tremendous boon to our already very strongly guarded southern border where, as we speak, a long, tall, and very powerful wall is being built.We have now completed over 100 miles and will have over 500 miles fully completed by early next year.”

On Jan. 10, Trump’s administration announced a completed 100 miles of wall along the nation’s southern border with Mexico.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said: “As of today, we have completed the first 100 miles of new border wall system on the southwest border. New wall has been constructed in every border state from California to Texas.”

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